This and That

You gotta respect Michelle Obama. I voted for McCain; I’d vote for him again—but I will certainly throw a salute to a savvy politician when I see one. What did she do now? She brilliantly defanged an issue that has bedeviled every active First Lady since Jimmy Carter’s “Steel Magnolia”.
Remember the complaints? “We didn’t elect her!” “Who does she think she is?” They faced Rosalind Carter, Nancy Reagan and Hillary Clinton particularly. Active women who did a lot more than stand next to their husbands with a big smile and blank eyes.
We didn’t want them giving advice to the Commander-in-Chief, even if that was how the marriage worked. She was expected to tend to the silverware at State Dinners and occasionally throw a nice garden party outside. We permitted Jackie to redecorate the White House. I don’t think that’s Michelle’s style.
But she is unlikely to face the sort of static the other three ladies did. Today was, “Bring your kid to work” day. The White House staff did. Mrs. Obama came in to greet them. She gave a nice little speech, apologizing for keeping their dad’s at work so late, then she asked for questions.
One boy asked what she would do if a crisis occurred in the middle of the night. She smiled, didn’t miss a beat, and said, “I’d wake my husband.”
“He’s President. I’d tell him to get down to the Oval Office and handle it. Then I’d go back to sleep and ask him how it turned out in the morning.”
You can bet she’ll do a lot more than that. But her image will be of the pretty lady and mommy who wouldn’t dabble in state affairs—but would “wake my husband”. A well played hand, a very well played hand!
COMING OUT OF THE RECESSION
Tulips, crocuses, and the first shoots of renewed economic life seem to be popping up here and there. As I pointed out to one happy optimist today, that’s not surprising considering that billions and even trillions of federal dollars are being stirred into the mix.
I asked her how good her historical memory of the Great Depression was (1930s). She admitted to a blank. I pointed out the Franklin Roosevelt, after defeating Herbert Hoover with a campaign pledge to cut federal spending, dumped the equivalent kind of money into the economy in the first four years of his presidency.
By 1936, the economy was well on its way back. The tulips, the azaleas and the forsythia were rioting. FDR won by the second biggest landslide in history (1964 topped it). Then, being the true fiscal conservative he actually was, he turned off the tap.
We discovered it wasn’t a real recovery. It wouldn’t go on its own. All the recovery flowers drooped and died. Without a steady infusion of large amounts of federal dollars, there simply was no recovery. By 1938, we were back to 13 million unemployed out of a total population of around 120 million men, women and children (Women often were not allowed to work then.)
The present bubble bust is the worst we’ve seen since the 30s. Honestly, we cannot be sure it’s over until the tap is turned off and the newly recovered economy takes its first steps on its own. With all the governmental fertilizer and water, I would expect to see signs of life now!
We’d better! Or we are wasting a whole lot of tax dollars. Is the recession actually coming to an end? Wait a year or two after the federal money dries up. Then we’ll know.
TO PROSECUTE OR NOT TO PROSECUTE
People are beginning to fuss because O’bama won’t start the parade to bring the torturers of the Bush administration up on legal charges. As it happened after Watergate, they want blood. Now.
I think the President, himself, is looking at reality. What should they have done with the World Trade Center still smoldering, big tarps hanging over the Pentagon? Is there another attack on the way? You want answers and you want them fast. American lives are at stake.
Actions were taken. We wanted information—fast. Mature judgment, with lots of time to reflect, probably wouldn’t have taken the kinds of actions that were taken then. The biggest indictment against the Bush people seems to be: “See? There wasn’t another attack. So everything you did back then was obviously unnecessary and excessive.”
That reasoning probably sounds as flawed to a Harvard lawyer as it does to me. O’bama may have another thought on his mind. (I would.) “What if something dreadful happens on my watch and my administration, caught in the chaos and fear of the immediate, does something that can later be deemed unnecessary and excessive? Where will I be?
“Do I want the administration elected in 2012 or 2016 coming after me with threats of prosecution and legal penalties?” Do we want a president in crisis hamstringed with that kind of concern for his own future?
Hey guys, they had smoldering ruins and thousands of dead. A plane had barely been stopped from ramming the White House. Back off a little—and be very thankful there wasn’t another attack.